<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><div>What would be interesting is to know what is the <span style="font-weight: bold">value</span> not the <span style="font-weight: bold">cost</span> of a FLOP?</div><div><br></div><div>I tend to look at computational horsepower in the tool sense. If my job is cutting wood, a chainsaw lets me cut a lot more wood than I could with a hand saw. Since there's some value in a unit of wood cutting, one could come up with a chainsaw value in cords cut.</div><div><br></div><div>Likewise, we tend to evaluate computing solutions in terms of "how much more work can an engineer get done using the computation, than some alternative" (leaving aside the delightful negative productivity from Angry Birds on an iPad, but gosh it's great on a long plane flight)</div><div><br></div><div>There's stories about nuclear reaction dynamics computations using Electric Accounting Machinery (EAM): tabulators, sorters, etc, which was then replaced by early computers. And the EAM equipment replaced rooms of computers (the living breathing kind with rows of Marchand calculators). SO there's some data there to compare with.</div><div><br></div><div>But I think that simplifying it to instruction counts (valid for EAM vs room of calculators) doesn't account for "change in way of solving problem"</div><div><br></div><div>Back in the day, people designed antennas by empiricism and some analytic approximations. But now, there are FEM codes, and the analytic forms are used more to validate that test cases run correctly on the FEM, and for "quick and dirty" estimates. </div><div><br></div><div>Likewise, structural design trades many simple calculations in a FEM code for longer form analytical approaches, and the ability to do the FEM <span style="font-weight: bold">enables</span> the design of structures that are MUCH more complex.</div><div><br></div><div>What is the "value" of being able to do a more complex structure? Or design optics that aren't simple spherical and cylinder sections?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="font-family:Calibri; font-size:11pt; text-align:left; color:black; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: #b5c4df 1pt solid; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 3pt"><span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span> "Hearns, John" <<a href="mailto:john.hearns@mclaren.com">john.hearns@mclaren.com</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span> Thu, 8 Mar 2012 05:43:10 -0800<br><span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span> "<a href="mailto:beowulf@beowulf.org">beowulf@beowulf.org</a>" <<a href="mailto:beowulf@beowulf.org">beowulf@beowulf.org</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span> [Beowulf] Supercomputers - iPad versus Cray<br></div><div><br></div><div xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style>
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><div lang="EN-GB" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="Section1"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/08/supercomputing_vs_home_usage/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/08/supercomputing_vs_home_usage/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">A rather nice Register article on costs for supercomputers,
adjusted to 2010 dollars,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">And a rather interesting cost per megaflop table on the
second page.<o:p></o:p></p></div><p><span style="font-family:'Arial';font-size:8pt;">The contents of this email are confidential and for the exclusive use of the intended recipient. If you receive this email in error you should not copy it, retransmit it, use it or disclose its contents but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy.</span></p></div></div></span></body></html>